...Confident in the Power of the Gospel!

Wow!! This has been an fantastic weekend - the best for a long time! As I explained yesterday, MJK have been here for the last three days, they went down really well at Wyebridge School on Friday and at 'The Big Event' yesterday,with quite a few local young people coming to hear their final set of the day.

Today we had an open air service and the MJK guys performed. We had a couple of complaints about the noise - As an aside, I find it ironic how some people seek to defend their "quiet Sunday's" with a near religious fanaticism, one woman said;

"Well you should've done it on Saturday really, because of the noise levels".

She didn't seem to twig that traditionally Sundays are a day off  for people to go to Church and worship the one true God, not a time to indulge in the idolatry of sleeping in, vegging out and catching up on the 'Eastenders Omnibus'!!

Anyway's, that's enough of me ranting as I have far better news to share. Firstly I need to give you some background, last week Challenge Church had their prize giving service for the children who attend the after school club they run. The parents were invited to attend, now bear in mind that most of these people have probably rarely, if ever, gone to Church.
There was one guy who came with his children, it was more than obvious that this guy wasn't someone you'd want to mess with. Afterwards he told the minister how much he'd enjoyed the service - it had totally blown away his preconceptions of what Church was like.
During the week, Martin, the minister, saw him at the petrol station and he told him he'd be there on Sunday.
True to his word he turned up this morning with family in tow.
He really enjoys rap music, which was made more than apparent by the way he threw himself into rapping along, and dancing too - he got a free CD for his efforts!
After the MJK guys had done their set and a couple of them had shared the story of their lives and how they became Christians, Martin took to the stage and gave a clear gospel message and encouraged people to respond by praying with him.
Later Martin told me how that guy had made a commitment. Praise God!!

When he was talking to Martin, and telling him he'd prayed, he said;

"When people look at me on the estate they think I'm a hard man, and I am, people don't mess with me. But I don't want to live like that anymore, I want to change. These past two Sundays have opened my eyes."

WOOHOO!

The more I think about it, the more excited I get, it's totally worth disturbing the idolatrous rituals of the locals to see broken people challenged and changed by the Gospel
- Christ crucified, resurrected and returning, really is good news, His life is still relevant and He is still changing lives today!

To finish I thought I'd quote a verse that we've been talking about a lot these last few days with the MJK guys.

"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile"
Romans 1:16